5 Ways To Stand Out On Twitter

You can use Twitter to sell a product, to create your brand or to become part of a community of experts – but if you don’t stand out from the crowd, you’ll quickly get frustrated. Increasing your follower count, and keeping them engaged, is all about adding something new to a conversation and making yourself heard. Here’s five ways to stand out on Twitter that you can implement today.

Share links with your opinion attached

One surefire way to blend in with the crowd is to share links that everyone else is sharing on Twitter. But this can also be a great strategy to get yourself noticed, with a few tweaks.

Rather than simply copy+pasting the article or website title and shortened URL into a tweet, you should always try to add your opinion, or an excerpt of the most interesting bit of the article. Think about your followers, and what they would find interesting, and then share that.

For instance, if you are reading about the latest whispers about the iPad 2, pull out the projected release date or mention whether you agree or disagree with the author’s take on what new features he or she would like to see. This way, you will be contributing something new to the Twitterverse that is totally your own, rather than simply parroting a link.

Ask questions

Twitter can be a great place to crowdsource, and you can use this strategy to make sure your followers know who you are. Think of interesting questions about your niche or area of interest, ones that you have often asked yourself. And then ask your followers.

An unanswered question just begs for an answer, so not only will doing this make you stand out from the crowd, but it will also increase engagement. People will be compelled to answer, especially if they are also interested in the question you’ve asked.

Don’t fill your whole Twitter feed with questions, though, as this can quickly become tiresome to your followers. Simply ask them their thoughts every once in a while – and don’t forget to respond to show you’re listening!

Share tips

We all have little tricks of the trade that we use on a daily basis without really thinking about it. But if you’re looking for a way to add something unique to Twitter, now’s the time to do a little brainstorming.

What tips and tricks could you offer to your followers? Sharing actionable information can quickly propel you from someone’s “sort of interesting” list to their “must retweet” list.

Again, spread these out as you don’t want to burden your followers with too much information at one time, but sharing one or two tips a day can really set you apart from the average Twitter user who tweets only for him or herself.

Be controversial

Nothing will get you more notice on Twitter than controversy. We have all followed a celebrity scandal or two in our time, whether we’re ready to admit it or not – and you can use this trend to your advantage.

Don’t be afraid of your controversial opinions. Air them out on Twitter. Say something that might offend – but be prepared to defend your case and back down if necessary.

Controversial statements should be used sparingly, but if you have a unique take on a news story that you want to share, do it on Twitter. Just make sure that it’s consistent with your brand, and that you’re not going over the line.

Be yourself

And lastly, the absolute best way to stand out on Twitter is to be yourself. You are you, and there’s only one of you – the tweets you craft will be unique if you let your personality shine through.

Too many Twitter accounts are bot-like – they share links and retweet interesting stuff, but they lack a voice. If you sprinkle your tweets with your own personal slang, opinions, thoughts and quirks, your account will become an extension of you, and your followers will trust you as a real person.